At least it was quiet...

I just read this article about a student that has been sleeping in NYU's (New York University) library for eight months to save money. Apparently, the NYU library is open 24 hours and nobody took too much notice of the fact that he was sleeping in chairs six hours a night.

For some, this may seem far-fetched. How could someone be sleeping every night in the library for eight months without someone thinking it was a little bit odd? However, speaking from experience, (no, I haven't slept in the library for eight months, but I am librarian who has worked in academic libraries) I can say for a fact that he was probably noticed, but no one thought too much about it. There are students who spend so much time at the library, one would think they lived there. And there are so many nooks and crannies in a large academic library, he was probably just mistaken for another student who fell asleep while studying.

I remember while I was in library school, we had a discussion about an issue very similar to this. I went to school in Denton, Texas, which is about 30 miles north of Dallas. The Dallas Public Library constantly had problems with homeless patrons seeking shelter in the library and they literally had to be kicked out at closing time. The students on campus really wanted our libraries to be open 24 hours a day (they closed at midnight), but in addition to economic and staffing factors, one issue raised was that of the homeless coming up from Dallas (or even just those in Denton) and attempting to take refuge in the library at night. Suffice it to say that the extra security that would have been required was cost-prohibitive. I am not advocating the homeless should not be allowed to use the library. Quite the contrary. Libraries are also community centers and a critical place the homeless can turn to improve their circumstances. However, the line must be drawn when they begin to abuse the situation.

This brings me back to the NYU student who was sleeping at the library. Was he abusing the situation? He has a scholarship so it isn't like he isn't a student... And New York is one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in (ranked 11th)... But he is also a creative writing student and chronicling the experience through his writing. (Wouldn't you know it, he has a blog! Read it here.) Was he just trying to experience being a "starving artist?" We may never know.

However, it was through his writing that he was discovered and now he has a place to stay for the rest of the summer.